Preds in review: Jonathon Blum

After he made the NHL this season from Milwaukee, it didn’t take long for the Predators to feel like defenseman Jonathon Blum was ready to stick around. Blum was called up on Feb. 22, after Ryan Suter suffered an “upper body” injury. On Feb. 25, the Predators traded Alex Sulzer to Florida. This made Blum a full-time NHL defenseman.

Blum finished a plus-8 in just 23 games during the regular season. This all came while playing with Nashville’s second defense pairing. In the postseason, he wasn’t exactly offensively prolific — two assists in 12 games — but he was steady. Blum also calmly swept away the distraction of Bobby Ryan’s foot stomp in Game 2 of the first round of the playoffs in Anaheim.

The future: The Predators are hoping for a solid sophomore season from Blum. Expect him to jump into the 20 minutes per game category. He averaged 17:45 during the regular season.